Biography

Catherine L. Mah MD FRCPC PhD is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University. She directs the Food Policy Lab, a multidisciplinary program of research in the policy and practice of public health, with a focus on health-promoting innovations in the food system. Her work integrates population health intervention research, policy science, and community action on environmental contexts for consumption. She has led food and nutrition issue analyses in four provinces and internationally, with collaborators in Canada, Japan, and Australia. In addition, she regularly contributes expertise to portfolios in cancer prevention, immunization, municipal governance, food security, and regulatory aspects of the food supply. Dr. Mah previously held fellowships at the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto, Kyoto University, Toronto Public Health, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She continues to hold an appointment at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Her current research focuses on strengthening data and policy options to negotiate dual aims in community nutrition and economic development, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, in collaboration with Health Canada and FLEdGE, a global research partnership on food and sustainability led by Wilfrid Laurier University. Over the last six years, she has provided principal supervision for students pursuing research in health professional and graduate degree programs in medicine, public health, community nutrition, public policy, and environmental studies. Dr. Mah promotes trainee opportunities for community-engaged scholarship and has mentored current and former students in citizen leadership and population health initiatives in several jurisdictions across Canada.

Education

PhD (Health Services Research-Health Policy), University of Toronto

FRCPC (Paediatrics), Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

Patterson, Patrick B., Catherine L. Mah, and Lynn McIntyre. A framing analysis of household food insecurity within the Canadian political arena illustrates the co-construction of an intractable policy problem. Critical Policy Studies, published November 2016 online ahead of Entrepreneurialism print (co-author, major role).